Richard Dawkins Says Forcing Children to Believe in Religion is 'Child Abuse'

While speaking about his new book 'The Magic of Reality' at the Chipping Norton Literary Festival in the UK, outspoken atheist and evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins said that parents who force children to believe in religion are guilty of “child abuse.”

“What a child should never be taught is that you are a Catholic or Muslim child, therefore that is what you believe. That’s child abuse,” said Dawkins on Sunday, per theDaily Mail.

“There is a value in teaching children about religion. You cannot really appreciate a lot of literature without knowing about religion. But we must not indoctrinate our children,” Dawkins added.

Last year, Dawkins said that being raised Catholic was similar to sexual abuse (video below).

Dawkins told Al Jazeera of a woman who had been sexually abused by a priest and was told by a Protestant friend that she was going to Hell.

“She told me of those two abuses, she got over the physical abuse. It was yucky but she got over it,” Dawkins said. “But the mental abuse of being told about Hell, she took years to get over.”